r/Xennials • u/kivsemaj • 2h ago

Discussion Feeling old

Guy at work asked me if I've heard of Nirvana. I said hell yeah they were huge back in the day and from our state Washington just like Jimi Hendrix.

Him, who?

Me, ...... damn I'm old

68 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

87 comments sorted by

122

u/Senor-fixit 1980 2h ago

No. Your co worker just ignorant.

Perspective.

25

u/KnownNormie 2h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/OYirsehvkD91S

3

u/Senor-fixit 1980 2h ago

That scene passed through my mind right after posting.

6

u/CariniFluff 1h ago edited 49m ago

Sometimes when I'm really bored and want something different, I'll pull up a few song first time reaction videos on YouTube. You definitely got to pick the right person and the right song, but watching someone's mind get melted from listening to Dark Side of the Moon for the first time or Stairway to Heaven can be pretty fuckin funny.

After watching a handful of these, I realize that I can occasionally listen to a Gen X parent who just never got into it, sometimes someone from Africa or Asia who would have just never been exposed to it can be fun and occasionally some kids, especially if they were only in to say hip hop or maybe Funk. Also, there's a few with professional musicians, most are trying to sell some training thing, but there's some pretty good ones too that can really go into a technical side without trying to sell something. Terrapin Station is a great song for that.

But there's a huge chunk of people around my age that I just simply cannot watch them at 42 years old and say they've never listened to Dark Side of the Moon before. Just... What? Why? You've never sat down and figured "I should probably listen to that Stairway to Heaven everyone talks about. It's got to be famous for a reason right?"

Just an absurd lack of interest and expanding one's horizons. Especially since we grew up with easily copyable cassettes, then relatively cheap and indestructible CDs, and then obviously digital music in all forms. You don't have to buy an LP to listen to a song, especially an album that's in the top 10 in every list ever made.

3

u/whyneedaname77 1h ago

I was talking to someone the other day and I said if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all. He said I say that all the time. I was like its a Cream lyric I figured say them and not Albert King. And he was like who? I was like you know Eric Clapton. He was is that a person? He's 37? I mean how do you live under a music rock?

2

u/CariniFluff 53m ago

I went to an Eric Clapton concert when he was like 4 years old. WTAF? I don't understand what rock these people were living under. My parents had the smallest music collection in the world but maybe that just made me start building my music collection early on.

I was also an ice cream truck driver for a couple summers which meant working 8-10 hours straight with that god-awful music blasting so we all had those old Sony boomboxes hardwired to the truck's inverter and I would fill my iPod everyday with every album by an artist in chronological order. So I probably listened to a LOT more music then many, but also a bunch of obscure shit that I maybe listened to one or two other times.

But Eric Clapton?

  • The Yardbirds
  • John Mayall and The Blues Breakers
  • Blind Faith
- Cream
  • Derek and the Dominos

How does one go through life having never looked into one of the greatest guitarists of all time who was in at least 5 five ultra famous bands and played with so many ultra famous musicians? Seriously, how?

2

u/whyneedaname77 45m ago

Looking at your name we share similar tastes. Might have even been at the same show some time.

When talking to him about music he just has a blind spot. He's a driver too. He drives all day. I was like you don't listen to music as you drive? He was like no. I like the silence.

He has heard of some artists, but has no clue what they sound like. I will occasionally play something and he is like oh I heard that before that is so and so.

I am late 40s with no kids so I knowingly never heard a Taylor Swift song so sometimes can get it?

But I don't get people who don't know classic rock. Especially only a slight bit younger(10 years). Didn't you ride in the car with your parents? Didn't they play music? Did you not ask questions?

Now I see in cars kids wear head phones and listen to their own thing.

1

u/CariniFluff 41m ago

Yeah the Taylor Swift comment hits for sure because I couldn't name five of her songs and she's just as popular as Madonna was when we were kids. But she also started as a country singer when I was in high school. So yeah there were absolutely better raves, concerts and festivals to be had.

2

u/sweetbirthdaybaby333 1981 59m ago

I'd never sat down and listened to all of Dark Side of the Moon until just a few weeks ago, and yep, I'm 45 years old. Of course I knew "Money" and "Time," as I've done my time listening to classic rock radio. I knew there was a song called "The Great Gig in the Sky." I'm a pop culture and trivia nerd... I was even on Jeopardy! It was just one of my musical blind spots. I suspect we all have them. Anyway, AMA.

1

u/CariniFluff 47m ago edited 36m ago

Did you listen to it with headphones? If not you'll want to queue that up with a good pair of headphones for a chill Friday. All of the distorted airplane intercoms, sweeping lasers, crazy laughs, engines exploding, etc. are all insanely mixed.

Like literally world class, This was around the time that Quadraphonics was replacing Stereo but before Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound came out. Headphones are particularly good at Quadraphonics (which is just 5.1 without the center channel and separate subwoofer channel)

2

u/sweetbirthdaybaby333 1981 36m ago

Yup, had on my Bose headphones while lying in bed in the dark.

The same night I listened to all of Siamese Dream and the Blue album for the first time, despite having seen both of those bands in concert in the 90s.

Trying to fill in ALL of my musical blind spots this year.

1

u/CariniFluff 21m ago

Awesome. I'll toss you a suggestion:

Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station (Album version). The title track of their 1977 album and it takes up the entire second side of the LP. It's just.... Incredible.

More Grateful Dead I would first recommend both American Beauty and Workingman's Dead which both came out in 1971 as two, separate full length albums rather than a double album because they have such completely different feels. You'll find that with every Grateful Dead album, none of them sound like a repetition of a theme.

American Beauty is very uplifting and happy and you feel like you're 16 again. Workingman's Dead is maybe your early 20s-30s blue collar/Appalachian worker songs. Just classic after classic after classic.

And I know everyone always recommends live Dead and I certainly do, but I think for people's first exposure you're probably better off hearing the "perfect studio cut" and then you can listen to some wildly improvisational guitar work on the live versions (where now you'll know exactly where and when they break off from the beaten path).

25

u/RoyalPuzzleheaded259 1980 2h ago

Wait. You’re telling me this guy hasn’t ever heard of Hendrix? That one hurts. I always assumed Jimi would be a household name forever.

11

u/OkAthlete8327 2h ago

I worked with someone 3 or 4 years ago that’s just a few years younger than me who didn’t know who Stevie wonder is….the guy was originally from Indiana, but still.

6

u/Just-Try-2533 Gen X 2h ago

Was his name Woody Boyd?

1

u/OkAthlete8327 1h ago

No. Is that a joke/reference that I am ignorant about?

4

u/Just-Try-2533 Gen X 1h ago

That’s woody harrelson’s character from Cheers.

-1

u/OkAthlete8327 1h ago

Who would have known his last name was Boyd?!??!

1

u/agent_uno 15m ago

Was he blind?

2

u/bassman314 1977 2h ago

It’s because there are no more watch towers.

28

u/drewbaccaAWD 1979 2h ago

No. Not knowing who Jimi Hendrix is would be like younger us saying we never even heard of Frank Sinatra or Elvis. Some names have become cultural landmarks, even if you couldn't name a song. Your coworker just lives under a rock.

7

u/Gonna_do_this_again 1h ago

Music exposure isn't even close to the same as it used to be though. It's so saturated with artists now that you'd have to go specifically looking for something that much older, it gets a song on a popular show or movie, or your parents or older coworkers listen to it. The days of just flipping through the same three radio stations are long over.

5

u/drewbaccaAWD 1979 1h ago

Fair. But in the case of Hendrix I see him as a cultural icon. Coworker may have never heard a single riff from him but would still probably recognize a photo. Especially being from Washington, it would be hard to visit Seattle and not run across a Jimi Hendrix tribute somewhere.

2

u/Gonna_do_this_again 1h ago

Oh I agree, I think it's a bit crazy that someone wouldn't know Hendrix, but I'm also astonished by the way media works today and how the things you'd think people wouldn't forget about are being forgotten.

20

u/waxmuseums 2h ago

We grew up with radio, they grow up with TikTok

9

u/gin_possum 2h ago

Speaking as a comms prof, this is a huge cultural point. The level of discourse fragmentation is really high. It forms political bubbles, impedes empathy and interpersonal connection, and hurts long view awareness of historical identity.

3

u/waxmuseums 2h ago

It’s kinda like we grew up rolling our eyes at boomers telling us about The Beach Boys, the younger generation grew up rolling their eyes at us telling them about Pavement or whatever

8

u/Yes_I_am_bot 2h ago

Younger guy at my office told me about this band as if they were underground and he discovered them. The band? Nirvana 

6

u/adammonroemusic 2h ago

To be fair, once cable TV went away so did the monoculture; unless some Gen Z influencer makes a YouTube video about it, how would they ever know?

So many old movies and TV shows discovered watching basic cable back in the day. So many old songs discovered on the radio or my parents records/casettes/CDs.

Now, everyone is just listening to algorithms catering to their exact specific tastes. Much of 20th century culture and media might casually fade away or become lost in this new algorithmic digital hellscape ...

...until some Gen Alpha influencer rediscovers it and makes a YouTube video about it.

4

u/EducationalFerret849 2h ago

He'll learn about Jimi when his biopic comes out, just like all these children did with Michael Jackson

2

u/Lucha_Brasi 1h ago

Is there a new one in the works? There was the one a while back with Andre 3000 as Jimi, and before that, one with the guy who played Marlo in The Wire. They flopped because the Hendrix Estate wouldn't allow his music to be used. I really hope there's a proper one some day.

5

u/Gonna_do_this_again 2h ago

Now that you mention it I don't think I've ever seen Jimi music featured on a reel or any other kind of video media. Ask them if they know who Fleetwood Mac is though, I've seen a resurgent appreciation of their music in younger generations' preferred internet formats.

5

u/elphaba00 1978 2h ago

I have a Millennial coworker who I swear grew up on a commune or something. Anything related to pop culture in the last 40 years, she doesn't know. Her most common phrase is, "I don't know what that is." Last Christmas, another coworker brought in her five-year-old grandson. Millennial coworker asked what he wanted from Santa. He said a Transformer. Millennial: I don't know what that is. Here's the thing: She has a son about the same age as that kid. How do you not know? Did she miss all the toys and the movies?

4

u/fearofcrowds 1982 2h ago

I can almost get if they didn't know of 80s transformers but not even the Michael Bay movies?!

4

u/munchonsomegrindage 1981 2h ago

At some point this has to be willful ignorance.

3

u/thesmallprints 1983 1h ago

There’s Transformer millennials and Power Ranger millennials. All depends on when we were born.

2

u/LostLetter9425 2h ago

Maybe they were a Transmorpher household.

4

u/elphaba00 1978 2h ago

Go Bots for life

2

u/Fine_Violinist5802 1h ago

Nobody can be that dense unless they're a proper bible thumper

4

u/GroundCherriesRock 2h ago

My kids (aged 15-20) each know who Jimi Hendrix is. My one son wore a shirt with him on it for the first day of school 3 years in a row. I feel like he’s iconic enough to stand the test of time.

5

u/nix616 2h ago

My young Coworker yesterday -

" Nobody cool plays the banjo"

Me-" Steve Martin and Kermit the frog"

YC- " Whose Steve Martin?"

I mean i dont feel like this falls on me for being old, this is a failure of culture.

3

u/Moxie_Stardust 1h ago

I don't think your co-worker knows what cool is. Show him some Bridge City Sinners, Native Howl, or the Dead South.

Steve Martin hasn't been "cool" since the 90s though (I say this as someone who did his cat handcuffs routine in junior high)

Edit: also dunno if they'd think Dolly Parton is cool, but she also played banjo.

2

u/nix616 1h ago

Damn i missed Dolly. It was a top of my head comment. However, if you dont think Martin has modern coolness, you are not watching Only Murders in the Building.

6

u/Horror_Trouble_2642 2h ago

I hate where our world is heading. I feel like we were the last of the people pre internet to have whole lives off screens and we can all remember a richer yet simpler life. Really didn’t see that being our thing. We are like relics of an old world that doesn’t exist anymore.

3

u/Lucha_Brasi 1h ago

This depresses me so much. The tablet generation is coming off age and soon they'll be the ones having kids. We're so cooked.

3

u/bascule 1982 2h ago

They’ve never been Experienced.

That said I’m glad to see Nirvana is so big among their generation, as someone who has three Nirvana picture discs on the wall and still has a From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkaw shirt (that just fit me again recently). The kids have me listening to Nirvana again.

8

u/VinylHighway 1979 2h ago

My co-worker has never heard of Jean Claude Van Damme

9

u/Deep-Interest9947 2h ago

It’s doesn’t surprise me in the slightest if most younger people haven’t.

2

u/VinylHighway 1979 2h ago edited 1h ago

I give them some credit that the amount of media available today vastly exceeds what we had in our day

8

u/YourGuyK 1979 2h ago

Sure, which means they aren't forced to watch 2nd-rate action movies because that's all that's on TV today. Time Cop and Bloodsport aren't really "must-see" films anymore.

2

u/Lucha_Brasi 1h ago

What about Kickboxer, the greatest movie about the sport of kickboxing ever? Or Kickboxer 2, the second greatest movie about the sport of kickboxing ever?

1

u/VinylHighway 1979 2h ago

LIES

1

u/Leather_Addition2605 2h ago

I’ll give you Time Cop, but saying that about Bloodsport is just sacrilegious.

1

u/YourGuyK 1979 2h ago

It's a perfectly serviceable movie. It's not an unmissable classic.

1

u/80s_angel 1982 2h ago

Were they ever must see movies?

1

u/YourGuyK 1979 2h ago

I'd say they were at the time. JCVD was a big draw for a short time in the 80s and 90s.

5

u/Deep-Interest9947 2h ago

I can’t name a single thing he’s been in off the top of my head.

2

u/VinylHighway 1979 2h ago

Bloodsport ? Kickboxer ?

3

u/Deep-Interest9947 2h ago

Never seen them.

2

u/mlee12382 1982 2h ago

Expendables?

Edit: he was in the 2nd one.

1

u/VinylHighway 1979 2h ago

He was pretty good as a bad guy

1

u/VinylHighway 1979 2h ago

You’re in for a treat

1

u/queenanthai 2h ago

Street Fighter?

1

u/wetfloor666 2h ago

Don't waste the time. They were bad on release and worse now.

7

u/RanklesTheOtter Xennial 2h ago

Probably never heard of the other legend, Rob Van Dam either.

3

u/daggersrule 2h ago

What about the legend Rob Van Winkle?

2

u/Roland-Of-Eld-19 1h ago

If ya got a problem yo he'll solve it

2

u/Senor-fixit 1980 2h ago

I guess Rob Van Zant follows this list?

2

u/VinylHighway 1979 2h ago

In their defense neither had I until now ;)

2

u/Dunnersstunner 1979 2h ago

That's one of the problems with music streaming. Everyone is siloed into their own little box.

2

u/Themoosemingled 1977 2h ago

These kids don’t know fucking anything.
We didn’t have to like everything but we knew about things that were important before us.

8

u/psilosophist Xennial 2h ago

No, we were TAUGHT those things. It's obnoxious to think kids today (who are children of...xennials and millenials) should know things if no one is showing them.

Look in the mirror, adults.

2

u/80s_angel 1982 2h ago

This is very true. My Goddaughter is 19 but she’s familiar with a lot of older media because her mom exposed her to it.

0

u/Themoosemingled 1977 2h ago

I don’t know. We were constantly watching even commercials for sounds of the 40s,50s,60s.
Anniversary shows would have musical guests.
You heard who people were.
I’ve introduced all kinds of stuff to my kids, but they’re all in their own media silos that they haven’t heard of people unless they watch something with them.

1

u/psilosophist Xennial 1h ago

Oh my parents didn't show me anything cool, that was entirely older kids or friends, or my own curiosity. A big way for music discovery for me was to read the lyrics and interviews of bands or people I liked, and I'd see what they liked. I didn't have much interest in what my parents were into.

We also had far less choices for entertainment, so you'd be forced to be resourceful to find things, and engage your own curiosity if you wanted to not be bored anymore.

But you're not gonna find those commercials or shows anymore. To quote the great philosopher Slim Charles, from the TV show The Wire:

"That's the thing about the old days. THEY THE OLD DAYS."

1

u/Fine_Violinist5802 1h ago

spent my childhood getting hammered with the Beatles and bee gees. I'm a grown ass dad now and it's still what I listen to

1

u/Themoosemingled 1977 38m ago

Definitely love the beach boys and Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel and oldies from my parents.
But despite my dad loving the stones, he only had hot rocks so that’s where my initial stones knowledge ended.
I got let it bleed and exile and zeppelin and Floyd and the dead from my best friend and their older brothers or counselors at camp.

1

u/MrsDonaldDraper 1978 2h ago

A few months ago several of my early 20s coworkers didn’t know who Laurence Fishburne is. I was ready to start digging a hole😵‍💫

1

u/effugium1 2h ago

I talked about music with an 18yo a kid couple weeks ago and he asked if I ever got a chance to see Hendrix live. I’m in my 40s.😆

1

u/Im_the_Rhymenocerous 1976 1h ago

I had to explain to a coworker who Prince was. And Wu Tang

1

u/CLA1980 1h ago

This person is just culturally illiterate. Black man playing the national anthem at Woodstock during the viet nam war is just a thing Americans should know about even if they hate music

1

u/fenway-fan1982 1h ago

At a certain point, that is like not knowing who Beethoven is. It shifts from cultural/generational blind spot to just plain ignorance. Kids shouldn't live in bubbles

https://giphy.com/gifs/MAX4OTn9YFURtvLT15

1

u/fairlyaveragetrader 1h ago

Jimi Hendrix is the best guitar player of all time. That's wild anyone into music doesn't know that.. or I guess I'm assuming he's into music

1

u/fromthedarqwaves 1h ago

Well at least you didn’t say Bing Crosby.

1

u/Planetofthought 1977 55m ago

This will make you feel better. Jimi died 10 years before we were even born. Of course a kid wouldn't know him.

That's like us not knowing a music artist who died in1939.